Forced to sell her baby daughter to bail her husband out of jail

Tong Thim and his wife, Seng Sok, with their remaining 6 children. The couple was forced to sell their baby daughter to pay for the police ransom for the release of Tong Thim

Khemara Magazine
From an article clip in Khmer posted online
Translated from Khmer Socheata

While catching fishes illegally by electrocuting them in a small pond near his village, a man was arrested by police officers who asked his family to pay 5 million riels ($1,250) to release him. However, because the family is penniless, at the end, the man’s wife had to make the hard decision to sell one of her children in order to get the money to bail her husband from the police jail. The man is now released, but they live in misery and sadness because they miss their child who was sold.

After the release of her husband, 37-year-old Seng Sok who lives in Prey Pok village, Prek Sdey commune, Koh Thom district, Kandal province, should be happy, but quite to the contrary, the release was met with sadness and tears because one of her children was sold in exchange for husband freedom.

This affair of “selling a child to bail the husband from jail” brings sadness to the villagers, they said that the cops should not be greedy enough to accept the money which they knew that it came from the sale of victim’s child.

37-year-old Tong Thim who is the father of 7 children (4 boys and 3 girls), who was just released, told Khemara about the reason he lost one of his child on 29 May 2008. Because of poverty, and he had no money to buy food, Tong Thim and 3 other villagers went to a rice field located about 600-meter form the village to electrocute fishes in a pond before catching them to feed his family.

Tong Thim said there were barbed wires around the pond area, and water in the pond is about knee-deep. On the day of the incident, he borrowed a neighbor’s bicycle so he could go catch fishes by electrocuting them with some of his partners. After catching about 1 kilo of tiny fishes, he returned home on his bike, happy to know that his 7 children and his wife will be tasting these delicious fishes. But, little did he know that one kilo of fish will cost him one of his children.

Tong Thim added that about 100-meter from his home, a group of men dressed in civilian clothes came out of the wood to arrest the men in his group. However, three of the men escaped, and only Tong Thim was arrested.

It was then that he learnt that those who arrested him were police officers from the Spean Dek station, located in Takeo province. The group was led by Im Phat the fisheries department chief, Chan Tha, a police officer and Botr, a military police officer. Tong Thim was arrested, handcuffed and taken to the Spean Dek police station. Several hours later, his wife came looking for him while carrying her baby child on her. She was accompanied by several villagers who begged the police to release her husband.

Seng Sok, Tong Thim’s wife, said that she cried and begged the police officers, saying: “Please release my husband, if you arrest him, who will work to feed my young children?”

Seng Sok added that she did not just begged them verbally, she even offered to give them all the money she had – 300,000 riels ($75) – for the release of her husband. But the amount she offered was too small, the cops demanded 5 million riels ($1,250) in order for them to release Tong Thim.

After hearing the cops’ demand, Seng Sok was shocked to hear the huge amount of money demanded by the cops and she became discouraged. She then took her baby and proceeded to take the 8-kilometer trip to return home. While walking home, her mind was aimless, she cried all the way back when she thinks about her husband handcuffed in jail and her 7 fatherless children.

She said that when she got home, she was faced by all her children crying out of hunger. When she tried to fetch the rice to cook for the kids, one her children told her that there is no more rice left. At that point in time, she came to a radical decision in order to face the challenge of her life: she took Leang Hang, her one-month-old baby daughter, to sell to a villager in order to get the money to bail her husband out. She got 500,000 riels ($125) from the sale of the baby and went back to the police station to try to bail her husband out. She went to meet the police officers and tried to offer the money to them while saying: “These 500,000 riels, I got them by selling one of my children.”

It is not known if these police officers ever have any children of their own, but they told the poor woman back, in spite of knowing that she had to sell one of her children to bail her husband out, that: “We need 1.5 million riels ($375).”

When she heard the heartless police officers naming the price for her husband’s release, the grief-stricken Seng Sok went back to the villager whom she sold her bay to, and asked if she could get another 500,000 riels. Along with the extra money and other money she was able to borrow from the villagers, she finally raised 1.5 million riels to buy her husband’s freedom.

Most likely, the ransom money Seng Sok paid to the police officers went on to pay for a eating and drinking binge for these heartless police officers, while Seng Sok and her husband must now face sadness and shame for having to sell their baby.

60-year-old Kao Sim who lives in the same village as Seng Sok and who bought her baby daughter, told Khemara that she knew Seng Sok’s family is extremely poor, that was why she agreed to help buy the baby for 1 million riels ($250) so that Seng Sok can pay for the police ransom. However, Kao Sim said that she did not keep the baby for herself, she sent the baby to her childless niece in Phnom Penh to raise. She said that if the baby’s parents have money, they can pay her back and reclaim the baby back.

Chun Kuoy, the Prey Pok deputy village chief, recognized that Tong Thim and his wife are very poor, they don’t even own an inch of land, and their house is built on someone’s land. The couple work as field laborers and they earn barely enough to buy rice to eat.

Chun Kuoy said that catching fish by electrocution is illegal, but what can this couple do when they do not even have enough to eat. He said that on certain occasions, Tong Thim would beg the local police to allow him to catch some of the fishes, and the local police would be lenient to him. He said that the village authority did not learn about his arrest, it was only after he was taken away that the village authority knew, but by then, it was too late to intervene.

Vibol, the Prek Sdey local police chief, told Khemara that the Spean Dek joint authority force belongs to the Takeo province authority, they were the ones who arrested Tong Thim, Vibol’s force did not know about this arrest. It should be noted that the Spean Dek police station is located at the provincial border of Koh Thom district, Kandal province, but inside Takeo province. A fisheries official form the Spean Dek post told Khemara over the phone of 12 May 2008 that Tong Thim was detained for 24 hours only, after his ransom money was paid, he was released but the battery used to electrocute the fishes and Tong Thim’s bicycle were confiscated. When asked about the fact that the ransom money came from the sale of a child, the fisheries official said that it was a family affair and that it was not his business. He said that the fine levied against Tong Thim was lowered to 1 million riels, because he knew that Tong Thim is poor, otherwise, if Tong Thim’s case has to go to court, Tong Thim would have to pay between 10-20 million riels ($2,500 to $5,000).

The fisheries official said that the pond where Tong Thim caught the fish is called Trapeang Run, administered by the Takeo province fisheries department, even though the pond is physically located in Kandal province. The villagers also claimed that the pond is located inside Kandal province, not Takeo province.

Tong Thim said after the incident, he and his wife have worked hard as laborers to earn money with the hope of saving some to pay back and release his baby daughter. However, the couple said that they are hopeless because the money they earn is not even enough to pay to feed their children. Tong Thim asked for generous readers to help him out.

The arrest for illegal fishing is fine, but the extortion money was excessive as it led to the sale of a baby by Seng Sok so that she can bail her husband out of jail.